Interlinking rivers in India

The Indian Rivers Inter-link is a proposed large-scale civil engineering project that aims to effectively manage water resources in India by linking Indian rivers by a network of reservoirs and canals and so reduce persistent floods in some parts and water shortages in other parts of India. The Inter-link project has been split into three parts: a northern Himalayan rivers inter-link component, a southern Peninsular component and starting 2005, an intrastate rivers linking component. The project is being managed by India’s National Water Development Agency (NWDA), under its Ministry of Water Resources. NWDA has studied and prepared reports on 14 inter-link projects for Himalayan component, 16 inter-link projects for Peninsular component and 37 intrastate river linking projects. The average rainfall in India is about 4,000 billion cubic meters, but most of India’s rainfall comes over a 4-month period – June through September. Proponents of the rivers inter-linking projects claim the answers to India’s water problem is to conserve the abundant monsoon water bounty, store it in reservoirs, and deliver this water – using rivers inter-linking project – to areas and over times when water becomes scarce. This book provides a comprehensive overview of water resources of India. This book will be of interest to the general reader as also to students and academics on the fields of water resources, hydrology, environmental studies and public administration.